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Post by horsall on May 9, 2013 5:03:13 GMT -5
Hello All Just as I thought no body has found an answer, and as one person said probably ok for topping up a boat battery but not much in the way of real output
Still the marketing blurb looked good they probably produced the 400watts in a wind tunnel at about 1mph below the rate wind speed just before the electronics put it into stall mode!
I have been running a Rutland 1803 2 blade version for 10+ years and I have never taken it down off the tower or done any maintenance (Shame on me) the tail is going a bit rusty now and I fancy the bearings are starting to get a bit worn but it still works day in day out and has survived all the storms of at least 60+mph gusts when the other turbines guyed tower was bending So you get what you pay for and wind turbines need to be over engineered to survive and for get the high out put claims in low wind speeds because chances they won,t survive high winds unless they have a GOOD furling system. Those are just my thoughts I think PV is a lot more reliable and of course nearly maintenance free and in the long term probably no more expensive .
Roger
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Post by caveman on May 11, 2013 3:00:08 GMT -5
Don't worry about bursting my bubble. It was deflating naturally! Considering the Air X has such a small swept area, 400watts output is well beyond optimistic. The only plus we have is that we live in an high wind speed area. I think we have a more recent model which has a better hysteresis curve between over speed and shut down. If the thing can only manage a dribble of power I will try turning its own regulator off and use a solar MPPT controller with a diversion dump load at the battery end. If I still find that the Air x controller is getting in the way I will take the machine down, open it and by-pass all the electronics and fit a 3 phase rectifier to produce raw DC which I can feed to the MPPT controller. For over speed control I ought to be able to monitor the ripple on the incoming DC to assess the rotor speed. I should still be able to shut the machine down by shorting its output. If I use a brutal rectifier it will survive this crude technique. The 1803 is a better choice by far but we didn't have the money and we also have the delicate task of introducing our neighbours to wind power! When they stop muttering about our little Air X we might get something bigger.
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Post by caveman on Dec 5, 2013 11:57:59 GMT -5
Lots out of it today! Generally...............................well..................................did someone mention topping boat batteries up? Live and learn.
c
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